Ronnie Watt began his study of karate in 1965, following a horrendous industrial injury that very nearly left him permanently disabled.As a member of the first karate organisation
in Britain (the British Karate Federation) and a founding student of the Karate Union of Great Britain, he was fortunate to train in what many regard as the golden age of Shotokan in Great Britain.
Becoming a professional instructor in 1970, Watt remained in the KUGB for some twenty years, during which time he invited many famous Japan Karate Association teachers to
Aberdeen, namely, Masters Kase, Kanazawa, Enoeda, Tsuyama, Shirai, Asano, Sumi, Takahashi, Kawasoe, Osaka, Hayakawa, Tomita, kawawada, Omura and Ohta. In an extraordinary coup, in 1981
he arranged for Masatoshi Nakayama, Chief Instructor of the JKA, to teach at his dojo. During his KUGB years, Watt fought at national and European level and trained in Japan three times, including at the notorious Takushoku University.
In the late 1980's, watt joined Kase and Shirai's World Shotokan Karate Academy. Heavily influenced by Kase in particular, and travelling to Norway with him, he was privileged to share insights into the great man's life. In 1997 Watt affiliated to the World Karate Confederation and this ongoing association culminated in 2001, when he organised for the WKC World Championships to be held in Aberdeen. He has subsequently coached his students to gold medal honours at world-class level. Today, Watt, a technical Director of the WKC, holds the rank of 8th Dan.
From the author of such classics as Shotokan Dawn, Kanazawa 10th Dan, Masao Kawasoe 8th Dan, and, Funakoshi on Okinawa, comes another brilliantly researched work that ensures that not only has the early history of Shotokan in north-east Scotland been recorded for posterity, but documents the extraordinary and eventful life of one man whose karate foundation it provided. Mainly through Watt's efforts over more than forty years, Aberdeen has become a centre of Shotokan excellence known throughout the world.